Western journalists' China visa dramas: Don't shoot the messenger

By Jaime A. FlorCruz, CNN

Updated 8:15 PM ET, Sun December 22, 2013

Jaime FlorCruz: Four decades in China13 photos

Jaime FlorCruz: Four decades in China – CNN's Beijing bureau chief Jaime FlorCruz has been living and working in China for four decades. Here he is on a visit to the Great Wall, front left with white jeans, in 1971 when he first arrived in China as a student leader on a study tour.

Jaime FlorCruz: Four decades in China – FlorCruz served as TIME Beijing bureau chief.

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Jaime FlorCruz: Four decades in China13 photos

Jaime FlorCruz: Four decades in China – With former president Jiang Zemin when he was Shanghai mayor.

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Jaime FlorCruz: Four decades in China13 photos

Jaime FlorCruz: Four decades in China – FlorCruz and TIME colleague Richard Hornik cover the 1987 Communist Party National Congress, the first ever opened to foreign correspondents.

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Jaime FlorCruz: Four decades in China13 photos

Jaime FlorCruz: Four decades in China – TIME magazine's reporting team in Tiananmen Square just days before the June, 4, 1989 crackdown. FlorCruz is far right.

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Jaime FlorCruz: Four decades in China13 photos

Jaime FlorCruz: Four decades in China – FlorCruz, with Chinese and international press corp, interviews Zhao Ziyang, then newly elected communist party chief at the end of 1987 Party congress in Beijing.

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Jaime FlorCruz: Four decades in China – FlorCruz "interviews" China's most popular icon in the panda nature reserve in Sichuan province.

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Jaime FlorCruz: Four decades in China – Reporting on a bird flu outbreak in Wuhan.

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Jaime FlorCruz: Four decades in China – Interviewing Yao Ming for CNN on the day he was drafted by Houston Rockets, NBA's No. 1 draft of that year

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Jaime FlorCruz: Four decades in China – Covering the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake in May 2008.

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Jaime FlorCruz: Four decades in China – FlorCruz helps get First Lady Michelle Obama ready for an interview earlier this year.

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Jaime FlorCruz: Four decades in China – Jaime FlorCruz with friends and co-workers in CNN's Hong Kong newsroom on announcing his retirement.

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Story highlights

Two dozen China journalists in tense wait for reporting visas after controversial stories

Reporting from China both rewarding and frustrating, says Jaime FlorCruz

Every December, foreign correspondents in China go through the rigmarole of renewing press cards and visas, which typically run out at the end of the year.

This time around, Chinese authorities held up renewing the credentials of roughly two dozen Bloomberg and New York Times reporters after the two American news outfits published muckraking stories about the wealth of the families of top Chinese leaders.

"Do you think hauling all my stuff to gates of the Foreign Ministry holding a tag sale will get their attention?"

After a tense wait, all Bloomberg reporters and some of the New York Times reporters picked up their renewed press cards on Thursday.

"We are in contact with Chinese officials and remain hopeful that our resident journalists in the country will be issued visas that will allow them to continue to work there," New York Times spokesperson, Emily Murphy, told me by email.

Reports: China censored newspaper

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This is a welcome development, but to fellow reporters in China that's a small consolation.

"So we've come down to this," said Newsweek correspondent Melinda Liu. "We rejoice over something that used to be routine."

Working as a foreign correspondent in China sounds glamorous and rewarding, and quite often it is. We cover landmark events, interview fascinating personalities and travel to exotic places.

But, as the visa controversy shows, it also involves a lot of hard work and hassles -- China ranks 173 out of 179 countries for press freedom, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Early frustrations

When I was just cutting my teeth as a foreign correspondent in the 1980s, the rules and regulations were so tight that it was difficult to get access to people and travel outside of Beijing.

Many places were not accessible to foreigners. A lot of information was deemed "neibu", or for internal consumption only.

A story done in one afternoon in most other beats would take weeks of waiting and gestation in China.

The protracted process often lead to unsatisfying results -- and frustrations.

Doing an enterprise story then was difficult and dangerous.

I remember doing a story for TIME magazine in the late 1980s. We traveled to rural Renshou county, Sichuan Province to follow up on reports of farmers rioting over local corruption.

Just minutes after we had started interviewing a group of farmers gathered in a home, three men in civilian clothes barged in and started to ask who we were and why we were there.

We cut short our interview and hopped into our rented car. The local driver was as scared as I was. "Those people can be ruthlessly violent," he told me.

Technically, such reporting trips violated China's "10-day rule", which required foreign journalists to secure permission from local "waiban" (foreign affairs office) 10 days in advance before we could conduct reporting outside our home base in Beijing or Shanghai.

Whenever we were caught doing so, Chinese authorities gave us verbal reprimands or asked us to write "self-criticisms."

China is changing

To be sure, the working conditions for foreign reporters have significantly improved compared to 1982, when I started my career as a China correspondent.

China has allowed more reporters into the country, allowing expanded coverage about varied, lighter aspects of Chinese life.

FlorCruz reporting on bird flu cases.

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In 1977, one year after Chairman Mao Zedong's death, there were only 39 foreign reporters in China. The number increased to about 100 when my China role began five years later.

Now, our ranks have expanded to nearly 700 working for 441 news outlets from 59 countries, mostly based in Beijing and Shanghai.

We used to be focused on human rights issues and politics. Now we report on a gamut of themes -- health, finance, Internet and fashion among them.

Over the years the restrictions have loosened, especially right before the 2008 Olympics when China rescinded the 10-day rule.

We still face problems, especially in the provinces where officials have vested interests and narrow ways of viewing things.

To them, foreign journalists -- and our reporting -- can create trouble for them, especially when we expose wrongdoings and abuses.

Local officials need to be told that the new normal is to allow us to conduct interviews and photo shoots freely.

They need to understand how foreign journalists operate, why we do things a certain way, why we need information promptly and accurately.

To be fair, there are many Chinese officials I know who subscribe to this new mindset and have been trying hard to shake things up or do things differently.

Some of them are quite frustrated with the result of their efforts.

"Too much negativity," complains one.

"We have tried hard to give access to foreign journalists but their stories still end up negative. We don't expect them to report like Chinese journalists but we hope they will be just objective and even-handed."

I hope these officials will keep pushing forward, instead of backward. It will show a measure of self-confidence and will push China closer to the international norms and standards of media management.

Important future role

Indeed although it's a lot easier now serving as a foreign correspondent there's still much to be desired.

In a year-end statement, the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China noted "a number of negative trends over the past year." Their list includes:

Cable television channels such as CNN and the BBC are closely monitored and sensitive topics are routinely blacked out.

We, as media, must also remain vigilant against self-censorship.

I feel little personal risk as a reporter, but our biggest concern remains the protection of sources who are usually more vulnerable to the government's control. None of us wish to land them in jail.

China is a crucial news beat for CNN and our audience. As the country evolves into a freer, more pluralistic society, the importance of covering China in all its many facets will only grow. There is a lot about the country, its people and culture our audience wants to know.

However, we cannot talk about the world's most populous country -- and the world's second biggest economy -- while avoiding inconvenient issues and unpleasant subjects.